Bob Huggins resigns as West Virginia males’s basketball coach after DUI arrest in Pittsburgh

Gordon Lee, the school president, and Wren Baker, the school athletic director, issued a joint statement saying, “Coach Huggins informed us of his intent to retire and has sent his letter of resignation, and we have accepted it due to current events.” To put his health and family first, we fully support his decision.

Following Huggins’ three-game ban and salary reduction last month for using a homophobic slur during an interview, this is not surprising.

Police in Pittsburgh said they last saw Huggins on Friday night in a black SUV. The vehicle was discovered abandoned in the middle of the road just before 8:30 p.m. local time, blocking both lanes. It had a “flat and shredded tyre,” police said, and the door to the chauffeur’s compartment was open.

Police were able to safely divert Huggins off the road, but when they saw that he was unable to move the truck, they pulled him aside to interview him. Huggins failed several of the tests used to determine sobriety on the pitch. He was arrested for DUI and taken away on a stretcher for further evaluation.

Since then, Huggins has been released from jail. Police said he would show up for a preliminary hearing, but they didn’t specify when.

Huggins was punished by the university earlier this month for using multiple slurs during an interview with Bill Cunningham, a radio presenter and former basketball coach from Cincinnati, on May 8. West Virginia University issued a statement at the time calling Huggins’ comments “insensitive, offensive,” and claiming they “do not represent our university values.”

On May 10, the university announced that Huggins’ salary would be reduced by $1 million, his contract would be year-to-year rather than multi-year, and he would be suspended for three games, among other penalties. In addition, the institution said that it had made “clearly clear” to Huggins that further use of such language would result in his dismissal.

“I have no reason for the language I utilised, and I take complete obligation,” Huggins said in an apology at the time. I agree to take the steps outlined by the University and Athletics administration in light of this incident. Over the past 24 hours, I have had multiple conversations with highly valued colleagues and friends, and I am painfully aware of the pain that I have truly caused. What I wrote on Monday was just a suggestion; I promise to do better.

Huggins is from Morganstown, and he played college basketball at West Virginia in the ’70s. He spent 41 years as a college head coach, amassing 934 victories and finishing eighth all-time in the NCAA. He coached at Akron and Kansas State before taking over at West Virginia in 2007, and he spent 16 seasons at Cincinnati.

His teams earned 26 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including two trips to the championship game. 2015 saw his induction into basketball’s Hall of Fame, the Naismith Memorial.

Huggins said in his announcement on Saturday, “I was born in Morgantown, finished from West Virginia University, and had the pleasure of training here for seventeen seasons as an assistant or head coach.” This place will always seem like home, and I’ll always consider myself a Mountaineer.